"Seeing Unseen": Privacy, Surveillance and the Hamlet Project

This Thursday, May 26 at 7 pm, the University of Redlands Theatre department invites you to attend a free, open rehearsal of "The Hamlet Project" developed by Chris Beach and Doug Hammett at the Frederick Loewe Theatre.

Beach and Hammett's adaptation sets Shakespeare's tragedy in a dystopian world where people speak Shakespearean English while employing modern-day social networking and surveillance technologies.

This juxtaposition makes thematic sense given that the plot of Hamlet revolves around several crucial mysteries: has King Hamlet's ghost risen from the grave? How did the king really die? Why has Hamlet started to behave strangely? Shakespeare's characters seek eyewitness evidence to answer these questions, devising elaborate strategems to ensure that they can see without themselves being seen.

Surveillance has become a heightened concern in modern-day societies, with the introduction of digital technologies that expand the scope of what can be recorded, analyzed and inferred. Incorporating cameras, mobile devices and social networking into a production of Hamlet raises necessary questions about the value of privacy and the way in which societies throughout history have balanced security and liberty.

If you're interested in reading further, try searching the Armacost Library catalog for more information on electronic surveillance, privacy and digital technologies. Here are a few possibilities:

American Privacy: The 400 Year History of Our Most Contested Right
Frederick S. Lane
KF 1262.L36 2009

Attorney Frederick Lane reviews the role of privacy in American history, from the efforts to keep postal mail safe during Colonial times through the signing of the PATRIOT Act in October 2001.

Privacy in the Age of Big Data: Recognizing Threats, Defending Your Rights, and Protecting Your Family
Theresa M. Payton & Theodore Claypoole
KF 1262.P39 2014

Payton is a former White House Chief Information Officer and CEO of a fraud and risk consulting company. Claypoole is a technology attorney who heads the Privacy and Data Management team for a major law firm. They explain in plain English how popular consumer technologies can be used to gather data in unwanted ways, and what you can do about it.

Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World
Bruce Schneier
HM846.S362 2015

Security analyst Schneier describes how corporations and governments have created a "surveillance society" at the cost of economic, civic and moral harms.

Unpopular Privacy: What Must We Hide?
Anita L. Allen
JC596.A44 2011

Is privacy always good? Should we have laws enforcing privacy, or should it be a matter of individual choice? Philosopher and laywer Anita Allen looks beyond the most popular and well-liked privacies, to ask whether unpopular - even coercive - privacies are also worthwhile, even if they require government regulation.


Sanjeet Mann
Arts & Electronic Resources Librarian
University of Redlands

Who's Reading the Reader?

"Who's reading the reader?" is the theme of this year's Choose Privacy Week (May 1-7, 2015).


"During Choose Privacy Week the American Library Association invites librarians and library users to engage in a conversation about protecting and defending reader privacy rights and how to acquire the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to address the widespread surveillance and data mining that collects information about users’ communications, reading and web surfing habits."


The American Library Association will be hosting a week-long online forum for Choose Privacy Week featuring various speakers on privacy and surveillance.  Librarians have long been advocates for their patrons' privacy.   

In 1972 Zoia Horn became the first U.S. librarian ever jailed for withholding information as a matter of conscience by refusing to testify against antiwar activists accused of a bizarre terrorist plot.  She was the chief reference librarian at Bucknell University at the time.   

Librarians have been and continue to be opponents of the broad surveillance power afforded by the Patriot Act. 

"Sonnie and Macrina both see privacy as not just an issue of intellectual freedom, but also of social justice. 'We serve members of communities who have been historically under greater surveillance than the rest of the population: immigrants, Muslim-Americans, people of color, political dissidents,' Macrina explained." http://www.thenation.com/article/206561/librarians-versus-nsa

Recently privacy and security concerns were raised about Adobe Digital Editions platform for ebooks collecting and transmitting user data over insecure networks.  "Adobe’s total failure to protect user information during transmission may be a violation of privacy laws." 

Interested in protecting your own privacy?  Check out the Surveillance Self-Defense toolkit from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 

Tune in to the forums taking place during Choose Privacy Week, and check out some of the books, films, and other resources on privacy and surveillance available at Armacost Library.